Finding the color of sound: artist Sabzi evokes the experiences and passions of past and present through his art - Artist profile: Sabzi - Interview - Biography

The longing melancholy of monomial artist Sabzi's fluid figurative paintings call forth memories of experiences past and an existential present

"Many of my paintings are improvisations," Sabzi said, who is self-taught. His proces begins with a desire to expres an emotional release from one side form and color. Although his work can be described as abstract expressionism and figurative, he said, "For me all painting is psychic automatism, figurative or abstract. I remember in what manner Robert Motherwell didn't like the confine abstract expressionism and preferred abstract automatism. In my paintings flat the figurative compositions are made up of infinite abstractions. each stroke of the brush is a psychic automatism."

Typically, women are his make subordinate matter of choice. Sabzi deifies women by the agency of portraying them as warm, graceful and fluid, abrupted with internal conflict and bearing non-descript faces. According to Sabzi, the anonymous faces make them religious icons that transcend and challenge the demands of reality.

"I want to release those energies that lie in the subconscious regions of my being. When I paint, the origin of nay expression is not in the profundity of my own being, nor is the extremity of my expression realized on canvas. I aim to advance beyond the canvas and deeper than my have a title to subconscious," he said. For Sabzi there is no definitive point of inspiration, rather a journey where the destination is the satisfying of recent origin possibilities of emotional expression upon canvas.

A Rich Heritage

Sabzi was born in Ahwaz, Iran, in 1951 where he later received a Bachelor of Science stage in Agricultural Engineering from Jundi Shapur University--an education he credits with providing him the understanding that agriculture shows the purest kind of relationship between man, nature, art and creativity. Sabzi left Iran in 1984 during the Khomeini regime for Germany where he sought political asylum and devot his time to studying art and holding exhibitions. In 1991 he came to the United States and vandalic in love with California where he decided to stay. While painful, the exile provided him with the opportunity to discover different artistic styles

The bottom of his artistic pursuits goe back to childhood memories of family gatherings. During these gatherings, his uncle would play the violin, and his father--who had memorized the entire 500 pages of Ferdowsi's Epic of Kings--would recite metrical composition "When I am asked in what manner I became a painter, I always have feeling the emotional warmth of those gatherings where with equal reason many layers of art fused to shape my life's desire and purpose" he said.

Music and his passion for playing stringed instruments have also serv as a major influence in shaping his paintings. Sabzi is accomplished in several instruments, including a Persian instrument called the Tar that he studied from well-known masters. He also plays the setar, the santoor and guitar. While he lists Paul Klee Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse as influences, he said, "The vitality and aesthetic power of my art is fundamentally inspired by means of music. I have always lived in the sum of two units worlds of form and whole I live my life either looking for the color of whole or the sounds of color."

These childhood memories, his rich Persian heritage and his explorations into Western philosophies are themes that appear in his work, which is showed by Collectors Editions. "One cannot eradicate memory, nor have I willfully adopted a mode of speech that looks Western. My past is not absent because I know my agriculture runs in my veins and cogitations But how this past manifests itself in nay art is beyond me I am not guided through it," he said.

Although Sabzi's work was deposit on exhibit at the Tehrans Museum of present Art in April of 2001 he has not get backed to Iran since he left "Seeing my race suffering under the current regime creates a fate of sadness and negative emotions for me and because of this I have not go [i]or[/i] come backed yet. I keep optimistic about the situation and faith one day I'll revisit Iran," he said.

In his life, Sabzi has shown that despite his circumstances his exploration of art will not be deterr "Becoming an artist is like the conception of falling in love--it is not something that can be decided, it just happens," he said, adding, "It is beyond just being in delight in as talent is necessary."

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